The National Osteoporosis Foundation Appoints Five New Members to its Board of Trustees

WASHINGTON, DC (April 25, 2017) – The National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) today announced the election of five new members to its Board of Trustees. The new trustees bring expertise in rare bone disease and family medicine, which will contribute greatly to NOF’s mission. The newly elected trustees include: James M. Gill, MD, MPH, President of Delaware Valley Outcomes Research, President of Family Medicine at Greenhill and Associate Professor at Jefferson Medical College; Thomas F. Koinis, MD, Family Medicine Doctor at Duke Primary Care and the Duke University Health System and an Oxford Family Physician; Kenneth Ward Lyles, MD, Professor of Medicine and Senior Fellow in the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development at Duke University and Geriatric Medicine and Metabolic Bone Diseases Specialist for Duke Health; Frederick R. Singer, MD, Director of the Endocrine/Bone Disease Program at the John Wayne Cancer Institute at Providence Saint John’s Health Center and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles; and Steven W. Strode, MD, MEd, MPH, medical consultant for the Arkansas Agency for Social Security Disability Determination.

“We are thrilled to welcome these five respected and committed individuals from the medical community to our Board of Trustees,” said Amy Porter, Executive Director and CEO, National Osteoporosis Foundation. “Their specialized backgrounds in family medicine, aging and bone disease will help NOF move toward its goal of reducing the two million broken bones that occur in our country every year due to osteoporosis.”

About NOF’s New Trustees:

Dr. James Gill fills many roles in the medical community of Newark, Delaware as a researcher, family physician, professor and leader of numerous medical committees and boards. Through his research, Dr. Gill has sought improvements in health care access and quality and his work has helped shape health policy and health care delivery at the state and regional levels. For 12 years, he served as Director of Health Services Research for the Medical Center of Delaware and Christiana Care Health Services, where he was awarded federal and state research grants to investigate health care policy, utilization and quality. Dr. Gill has also established himself as a leading expert in the use of computerized medical records and other data systems. His research findings are widely published in national journals of medicine and Dr. Gill is regularly invited to present at national and international medical conferences and scientific meetings.

Working directly with patients remains one of Dr. Gill’s top priorities. He provides care at a family medicine practice in Wilmington, Delaware and is an attending physician at several area hospitals. Dr. Gill also volunteers his time as a physician for the underserved in his community.

Dr. Thomas Koinis has practiced full time family medicine for 34 years in rural Oxford, North Carolina, working for Duke Primary Care Oxford. He has been active in the North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians, serving multiple roles including president, and has been involved nationally with the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), serving as chair of the AAFP Commission on Health of the Public and Science. Dr. Koinis is also one of the medical directors for Northern Piedmont Community Care, part of the Community Care of North Carolina network, which manages much of the Medicaid program for the state.

With a strong interest in preventive health issues as well as sports medicine, immunizations are a particular interest for Dr. Koinis. He serves on the North Carolina Immunization Advisory Board and has served on many working groups for the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. He is currently a preceptor to a family medicine resident from the Duke Family Medicine program and has served on both his local health department and hospital boards. Dr. Koinis is board certified in Family Medicine by the American Board of Family Medicine and is a Fellow of the AAFP.

Dr. Kenneth Lyles has helped patients with metabolic bones diseases (osteoporosis and Paget’s disease of bone) and other disorders of mineral metabolism (vitamin D deficiency and hyperparathyroidism) for more than 30 years. He enjoys helping patients with complicated problems find ways to treat their disease. Dr. Lyles’ research activities focus on understanding the effect osteoporotic fractures have on people and working to develop ways to reduce their impact and to prevent future fractures. His research group completed a randomized, placebo-controlled trial published by the New England Journal of Medicine showing that an annual infusion of 5mg of the bisphosphonate zoledronic acid reduced subsequent fractures after a surgical procedure for a hip fracture by 35 percent compared to a placebo infusion. The study also found a 28 percent reduction in death among the zoledronic acid treated patients. Dr. Lyles’ group has also helped design and conduct a number of phase 1, 2 and 3 clinical trials in Paget’s disease of bone and osteoporosis.

Dr. Frederick R. Singer is the past Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Paget Foundation and past president of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research. Dr. Singer’s research interests are skeletal complications of malignancy, Paget’s disease of bone, primary hyperparathyroidism, osteoporosis and the effect of vitamin D on breast cancer and malignant melanoma. Dr. Singer has served on many national public health committees, including as chairman of the USPHS FDA Endocrinologic Metabolic Drug Advisory Committee, on NIAMSD ad hoc review groups on osteoporosis, and as co-chairman of the NIAMSD National Research Plan Task Force on Bone Biology and Bone Diseases. Dr. Singer has also served on the editorial boards of Calcified Tissue International, Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and Osteoporosis International.

Dr. Steven Strode has held a number of clinical positions, including an appointment to the Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System and medical director for the statewide Arkansas Area Health Education Program. Dr. Strode’s interest in quality improvement and performance measurement led him to participate in an American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) sponsored Performance Measures Training Program and subsequently he has represented the AAFP on the AMA PCPI Skin Cancer and Sinusitis Work Groups and continues on the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) clinical guidelines development committee for hoarseness. Dr. Strode also worked with the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons on three clinical practice guideline projects. He is a Fellow of the AAFP and Former President of the Arkansas Academy of Family Physicians.

About the National Osteoporosis Foundation

Established in 1984, the National Osteoporosis Foundation is the nation’s leading health organization dedicated to preventing osteoporosis and broken bones, promoting strong bones for life and reducing human suffering through programs of awareness, education, advocacy and research. For more information on the National Osteoporosis Foundation, visit www.nof.org.